Mobile atheroma of the aortic arch and the risk of carotid artery disease

Carotid Atherosclerosis as a Risk Factor for Complex Aortic Lesions in Patients With Ischemic Cerebrovascular Disease

“…Based on this finding, hypertension has a stronger atherogenic effects on the carotid arteries than on the aortic arch; however, our statistical power was limited, requiring much larger studies with refined criteria to establish this finding. Despite the frequent coexistence of carotid stenosis in patients with aortic atherosclerosis, 7,8 whether carotid findings can be used to stratify the severity of aortic atherosclerosis has not been established for ICVD. In the current study, we found a moderate linear relationship between aortic and carotid IMT (Fig 1), suggesting a link between aortic and carotid atherosclerosis.…”

Surgical Treatment of a Floating Thrombus of the Ascending Aorta Causing Repeated Arterial Embolisms

“…Freiderick et al 6 showed, in 31 patients presenting a peripheral embolic event due to a mobile aortic atheroma of the aorta, that patients (n ¼ 20) who did not receive anticoagulant treatment had a high risk of peripheral vascular accidents (45%), the risk of CVA was of 27%, and that of myocardial infarction was of 18%. Arko et al 7 in a series of 40 patients did not observe any recurrence after a follow-up of 2e48 months. But none of these authors specified the duration of the anticoagulant treatment.…”

Large highly mobile complex ascending aortic atheroma causing left middle cerebral artery stroke in patient without any history of cardiac disease.

“…2,3 Stroke events from these lesions may be avoided prophylactically with anticoagulation therapy. Ferrari et al performed a prospective cohort study showing that patients with complex aortic atheromas treated with antiplatelet therapy had significantly more embolic events and a nine-fold higher mortality compared to those on anticoagulation therapy with warfarin.…”

“…1 Additionally, these patients have a higher incidence of recurrent stroke and peripheral embolization. 2 The mobility of these lesions is especially significant, as multiple observational studies demonstrate up to a 100% rate of embolization in mobile lesions. 3,4,5 Our report presents a patient with no past medical history of coronary artery disease or stroke who developed acute stroke-like symptoms from a large, highly mobile, complex atheroma causing a left middle cerebral artery (MCA) embolic event.…”